ISTANBUL

Thousands of families in Khan Younis are fleeing Israeli airstrikes and military operations, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported on Monday. 

"Families in Khan Younis have yet again received evacuation orders from Israeli authorities," UNRWA stated. "The cycle of fear and displacement has gone on too long. Everyone is exhausted," it noted.

Additionally, the Palestine Red Crescent announced that its Maan and Bani Suhaila clinics are out of service due to their locations in the evacuated eastern areas of Khan Younis.

The Israeli army shelled the area in the Gaza Strip, which it had previously claimed to be "safe" but demanded it to be evacuated on Monday.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, in early October.

More than 38,800 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 89,400 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.